Question of the Day

Should President Trump pardon Michael Flynn?

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Members of the People’s Liberation Front, a Marxist political party, carry a portrait of Russian Communist leader Vladimir Lenin during a parade held to mark May Day in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, May 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) more >

The massive disinformation program being waged by the Democratic Party that somehow Russia was able to influence the outcome of our 2016 presidential election is nothing but a sham. To date, there is no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians on the run-up to the election. Further, the former director of national intelligence, Lt. Gen. James Clapper, stated on Jan. 15 that there was no evidence of the Russians changing votes in any of the states. After all, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

What actually happened was that the Obama administration was using electronic surveillance on the Trump campaign well in advance of the election to monitor Trump staffers such as Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Susan Rice, the former national security adviser for President Obama, after initially denying on the Public Broadcasting Service on March 22 that electronic surveillance took place, confirmed on April 4 that surveillance of the Trump campaign was conducted. Clearly, the Russian election scam was a false flag operation that the Democratic Party initiated using leaked deception tactics with the help of the mainstream media.

The Russians had nothing to do with these leaks, according to WikiLeaks Julian Assange, not necessarily the most reliable source. The murdered Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer, Seth Rich, may well have been the source of the DNC leaks. Interestingly, the DNC would not let the FBI investigate its server. Yet, the media are still spending inordinate amounts of time and coverage on Russian influence of the election outcome while they continue to ignore the many illegal acts conducted during the Obama administration.

For example, much of it has to do with the massive cover-up to conceal the violation of the Espionage Act by both Mrs. Clinton and President Obama for using a server that did not have an Authority to Operate designation. According to FBI reports, more than 2,000 classified emails, as well as several hundred Special Access Programs, were transmitted over this unsecured server. Further, Mr. Obama, using a pseudonym, reportedly transmitted emails over this unauthorized server, which meant that he was complicit in knowing it was being used without proper authority. Both of them, therefore, appear complicit in setting it up in violation of the Espionage Act.

Some of our most sensitive sources were compromised. Just think if the Russian foreign minister used an unsecured server — that would have been a gold mine for our intelligence community.

Also, while Mrs. Clinton was serving as secretary of State, the sale of a Canadian company, Uranium One, to a Russian company involved the sale of 20 percent of our national uranium deposits. While other agencies had to sign off on this sale, the State Department’s support was critical. The Clinton Foundation’s “humanitarian” efforts received approximately $145 million from several of the parties involved with the transactions. Of the $145 million allegedly contributed to the Clinton Foundation by Uranium One investors, the lion’s share — $131.3 million — came from a single donor, Frank Giustra, the company’s founder. Separately, former President Bill Clinton was given a $500,000 speaking fee by a Russian Bank involved with the sale. Amazing.

Further, John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s former campaign manager, previously was a board member of a Vladimir Putin-connected energy company, Joule Ltd. Two months after Mr. Podesta joined the board, Mr. Putin’s Rusnano company announced that it would invest up to 51 billion rubles into Joule Ltd, which amounts to $35 million. This was revealed in a 56-page Government Accountability Institute report. Rep. Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, is calling for a congressional investigation into the connection between Mr. Podesta and Russia. As an aside, Mr. Podesta failed to fully disclose his Joule board membership as required by law before he became Mr. Obama’s senior adviser in January 2014.

Evidence of collusion to advance Mr. Putin’s Russia started years before Mr. Trump announced his presidential bid. As secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton spearheaded U.S. involvement in a Russian technology initiative called Skolkovo. The Russian government’s stated goal for Skolkovo, touted as “Innovation City,” was to be the Russian equivalent of America’s Silicon Valley. Despite the FBI’s and U.S. Army’s warning that Mr. Putin could use Skolkovo to accelerate Russia’s military technological capabilities, Mrs. Clinton’s State Department developed alarming relationships with this Kremlin-controlled entity. There was no need for Russia to conduct industrial espionage. We were giving them our technology. Mind-boggling.

The bottom line is that the mainstream media have completely ignored these transactions by the Obama administration while continuing with their false flag disinformation program on Russian involvement in our election. The most serious scandal appears to be that both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama were complicit in setting up an unsecured server in violation of the Espionage Act. This cannot be ignored by the U.S. government.

We can never condone violations of the Espionage Act by our political leaders. America has never seen such corruption in our history where both the Justice Department and the intelligence community were politicized for political gain. This is the story that America must be told.

• James A. Lyons, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.